Credits
First Published in the UK in 2013 by Intellect Books,
The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK
First Published in the USA in 2013 by Intellect Books,
The University of Chicago Press, 1427 E. 60th Street,
Chicago, IL 60637, USA
Copyright 2013 Intellect Ltd
Editor: Jennifer K. Stuller
Series Editor and Art Direction: Gabriel Solomons
Design support: Chris Brown
Copy Editor: Emma Rhys
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written consent.
A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Fan Phenomena Series
ISSN: 2051-4468
eISSN: 2051-4476
Fan Phenomena: Buffy The Vampire Slayer
ISBN: 978-1-78320-019-1
ePUB ISBN: 978-1-78320-096-2
ePDF ISBN: 978-1-78320-095-5
Printed and bound by
Bell & Bain Limited, Glasgow
Acknowledgements
I was late to the Buffy party. Having ignored enthusiastic praise from friends, as well as recommendations from family, it wasnt until I read Tim Goodmans review of the seminal sixth season musical episode, Once More With Feeling, in the San Francisco Chronicle that I decided to give it a chance.
In that one episode I fell in love and recognized what Id been missing; a funny, intelligent, emotionally resonant, creative, layered, and subversive serial that I should have been paying attention to all along.
Since that night of singing and dancing from Scoobies, demons, and residents of Sunnydale, California, Ive been a fan. More than that, my fandom has been expressed in ways Id never before considered, thus connecting me to friends and colleagues many of whom were directly critical to the making of this book.
First Id like to commend the contributors to this anthology for their flexibility and their creativity, as well as for their presentations of smart accessible research, and their unique, often personal, meditations on fandom.
My gratitude extends to the Buffy as Archetype: Rethinking Human Nature in the Buffyverse course co-creators and participants from Winter 2004 at the University of Washington. Along with those thinkers, and those in the Whedon Studies Association, I was able to see that both Buffy and scholarship have many points of entry and that the show itself is a connective force.
I want to especially thank Dr. Amy Peloff. Like, Buffy Summers, you share the power. (Plus you are very smart, and very pretty.)
Id mentioned my fandom for the series has been expressed in unexpected and extraordinary ways, so on that note Id like to thank, Jessica Obrist, for helping me express my fandom for Buffy in a way Id never imagined performing as Joyce Summers in 2012s Whedonesque Burlesque. Thanks also go to the cast and crew for helping me conquer Fear Itself like a Slayer, and to my husband, Ryan Wilkerson, who responded to my request for a transportable six-foot tall, Monolith-like replica of the MILKBAR from the season three episode, 'Band Candy,' for my first-ever burlesque act with a 'Can do!' and sat in the audience all five nights of the show run smiling and cheering for every act, every night.
A woman needs Scoobies, and Im ever-grateful to have them in spades.
Id like to thank photographers Jules Doyle, Inti St. Claire, and Sayed Alamy for sharing their work in this text, as well as the subjects for agreeing to use of their image. Al Lykya and Allexa Lee Laycock deserve a shout-out for recreating the epic Spike and Buffy liplock at GeekGirlCon 12s Once More With Feeling sing-along. Thank you also to Clinton McClung, Seattles own Sweet, for bring his event to the convention and for agreeing to be interviewed for this anthology.
Thank you also to Nikki Stafford, Rhonda Wilcox, and Scott Allie for their interviews. Many thanks to Aub Driver at Dark Horse for providing images from the canonical Buffy comics.
Im grateful to Katrina Hill and Clare Kramer for inviting me to participate in the 2012 Comic-Con panel on 'Comics and the Whedonverse' as well as to Travis Langley, Alex Langley, Brian Keathley, and Geek Nation for their support.
Suzanne Scott was my go-to reference source on fan studies, and I am grateful for her scholarship. Id also like to thank the organizers of the Comics Arts Conference, the Slayage Conference on the Whedonverses, and The Whedon Studies Association for their continued support.
A special mention of Ensley Guffey is in order for thinking the Fan Phenomena series was a project I might be interested in and for sending the call for editors my way.
Nancy Holder and Belle Holder have also offered friendship and support during this project. And Id like to thank Jane Espenson for being an all-around awesome woman.
This book would not have happened without Fan Phenomena series editor Gabriel Solomons. Im proud to have my name on such a beautifully designed book. So thank you for making our words look so good.
Finally, my love to Giles & Wesley, the two best four-footed Watchers a Slayer could hope for.
Introduction
Jennifer K. Stuller, Editor
No one can predict what might become a cult phenomenon something loved and quoted long after its debut, or its finale. A flop at the cinema might be a sensation on DVD, a comic-book superhero might still be a franchise icon decades after two kids in Cleveland created him, a humanistic series set in outer space might teach about acceptance, hope, and possibility inspiring real-life accomplishments, and a cheerleader in a dark alley might forever influence the ways we think about what constitutes a hero.
Except, that cheerleader was created to be a figure of identification and devotion. As Joss Whedon famously told the A.V. Club in 2001:
I designed Buffy to be an icon, to be an emotional experience, to be loved in a way that other shows cant be loved. [] I wanted her to be a cultural phenomenon. I wanted there to be dolls, Barbie with kung-fu grip. I wanted people to embrace it in a way that exists beyond, Oh, that was a wonderful show about lawyers, lets have dinner. I wanted people to internalize it, and make up fantasies where they were in the story, to take it home with them, for it to exist beyond the TV show. And weve done exactly that. [] she has become an icon, and thats what I wanted. What more could anybody ask?
